AGATA – the Advanced Gamma Tracking Array is a multi-national European project for the ultimate high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometer for nuclear physics capable of measuring γ rays from a few tens of keV to beyond 10 MeV, with unprecedented efficiency, excellent position resolution for individual γ-ray interactions and correspondingly unparalleled angular resolution, and very high count-rate capability. AGATA will be a flag ship spectrometer and have an enormous impact on nuclear structure studies at the extremes of isospin, mass, angular momentum, excitation energy and temperature. It will enable us to uncover and understand hitherto hidden secrets of the atomic nucleus.

Neutron star’s mass-radius relation with and without hyperons. Masses of the pulsars PSR J0348+0432 and PSR J0740+6620 are shown with their observation uncertainties.

The possible presence of strange matter in the core of neutron stars has given rise to the so-called hyperon puzzle: hyperonic degrees of freedom are energetically allowed in the extreme density conditions believed to exist in the core of Neutron Stars, but hyperons reduce the internal pressure of the star, which then cannot compensate the gravitational field to sustain the most massive compact stars observed.

This work reports on the effect of three-body interactions when including a Lambda hyperon on the properties of hyper-nuclei and Neutron Stars. State-of-the-art three-body chiral effective interactions are introduced in a microscopic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock calculation.

Sketch of the QCD phase diagram in the temperature and baryon chemical potential plane.

The properties of the theory of strong interactions, QCD, at finite chemical potential are of great interest for at least two reasons: (i) model studies suggest a potentially rich landscape of different phases with highly interesting analogies to those found in solid state physics; (ii) the resulting thermodynamic properties have far reaching consequences for the physics of neutron stars and neutron star mergers.

The free-surface LiLiT flow, photographed while bombarded by a ~ 3 kW continuous-wave proton beam from the SARAF linac. The liquid lithium jet, ~1.5 mm thick, forced-flown at a velocity of 2.5 m/s at ~ 195 °C and supported by a 0.5 mm thick stainless steel backing wall, serves both as a neutron producing target and the power beam dump. The target chamber pressure connected to the accelerator beam line is 1×10-6 mbar.

Exotic non-spherical shapes of nuclear matter, so called pasta phases, are possible because of the competition between the short-ranged nuclear attraction and the long-ranged Coulomb repulsion, leading to the phenomenon of Coulomb frustration, well known in statistical mechanics. Such complex phases are expected in the inner crust of neutron stars, as well as in core-collapse supernova cores.

The authors of the EPJ A (2018) 54:215 paper examine for the first time the stability of the «lasagna» phase, consisting of periodically placed slabs, by means of exact geometrical methods. Calculations are done in the framework of the compressible liquid drop model but obtained results are universal and do not depend on model parameters like surface tension and charge density. The stability analysis is done with respect to the different types of deformations corresponding to the eigenvalues of the deformation matrix.

Lattice calculations using the framework of effective field theory have been applied to a wide range of few-body and many-body systems. One of the challenges of these calculations is to remove systematic errors arising from the nonzero lattice spacing. While the lattice improvement program pioneered by Symanzik provides a formalism for doing this and has already been utilized in lattice effective field theory calculations, the effectiveness of the improvement program has not been systematically benchmarked.

In this work lattice improvement is used to remove lattice errors for a one-dimensional system of bosons with zero-range interactions. To this aim the improved lattice action up to next-to-next-to-leading order is constructed and it is verified that the remaining errors scale as the fourth power of the lattice spacing for observables involving as many as five particles. These results provide a guide for increasing the accuracy of future calculations in lattice effective field theory with improved lattice actions.

The experimental setup of the P2-experiment to measure the weak mixing angle at the new electron accelerator MESA in Mainz.

The P2-experiment at the new electron accelerator MESA in Mainz aims at a high-precision determination of the weak mixing angle at the permille level at low Q2. This accuracy is comparable to existing measurements at the Z-pole but allows for sensitive tests of the Standard Model up to a mass scale of 50 TeV. The weak mixing angle will be extracted from a measurement of the parity violating asymmetry in elastic electron-proton scattering. The asymmetry measured at P2 is smaller than any asymmetry measured so far in electron scattering, with an unprecedented accuracy. This review just published in EPJ A describes the underlying physics and the innovative experimental techniques, such as the Cherenkov detector, beam control, polarimetry, and the construction of a novel liquid hydrogen high-power target. The physics program of the MESA facility comprises indirect, high-precision search for physics beyond the Standard Model, measurement of the neutron distribution in nuclei, transverse single-spin asymmetries, and a possible future extension to the measurement of hadronic parity violation.

Spectra of the 76Ge(3He,t)76As reaction unveiling an enormous number of resolved states at low excitation energies. Five color-coded spectra are stacked on top of each other showing the angular dependences. The isobaric analog state (IAS), GT resonance (GTR) and spin-dipole resonance (SDR) are indicated.

This review highlights the extraordinary power of the hadronic charge-exchange reactions at intermediate energies and at highest spectral resolution, as exemplified by the (n,p)-type (d,2He) and the (p,n)-type (3He,t) reactions. The review shows how areas of nuclear physics, astrophysics and particle physics alike benefit from such enhanced resolution. A major part of this review focuses on weak interaction processes in nuclei, especially on those, where neutrinos play a pivotal role like in solar neutrino induced reactions or in ßß decay. Unexpected and even surprising new features of nuclear structure are being unveiled as a result of high resolution. (See figure).

From October 2018 David Blaschke succeeds Tamás S. Biró as Editor in Chief of EPJ A for the section Theoretical Physics II: Hadron Physics and Quark Matter.

David Blaschke is Professor for Theoretical Physics of the University of Wroclaw and leading scientist at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna. His research interest is in developing quantum field theoretical models of strongly interacting matter to describe the transition from hadronic matter to the quark gluon plasma in the QCD phase diagram. He studies applications of these models to the physics of compact stars, their mergers and to relativistic heavy-ion collisions.

Highest intensities of ultracold neutrons (UCN) are in worldwide demand for fundamental physics experiments. Tests of the Standard Model of particle physics and searches for physics beyond it are performed with UCN.

Two of the leading UCN sources, at PSI and at LANL, are based on solid deuterium (sD2) at temperatures around 5 K. Here, together with NCSU they joined forces to understand UCN intensity decreases observed during pulsed neutron production. The study shows that the decrease can be completely explained by the build-up of frost on the sD2 surface during operation. Pulsed proton beams hitting the spallation targets generate heat pulses causing cycles of D2 sublimation and subsequent resublimation on the sD2 surface. Even very small frost flakes can act as total reflectors for UCN and cause an intensity decrease.